Why No Women Rank Among The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes

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Gender inequality on pay has permeated the American workplace for decades. The latest Census Bureau figures show women earning 80% as much as their male counterparts (occupational choices and work experience explain part of the pay gap).

The sports world has not been immune to the gap when it comes to salaries and prize money. The U.S. women’s national soccer team, which generates more revenue than the men’s squad, filed a wage-discrimination complaint against U.S. Soccer in 2016, with claims of being paid one-quarter of what the men make.

Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

Forbes released its annual look at the world’s highest-paid athletes on Tuesday, and it highlights the gap in pay between men and women in professional sports. Women were shut out for the first time since we expanded the list to 50 names in 2010 (Forbes has published a top 100 since 2012). There had always been at least one female tennis player, and as many as three, making the cut. Serena Williams is the top-earning female athlete this year at $18 million, but she fell nearly $5 million short of the $22.9 million cutoff for the top 100.

Multiple factors caused the absence of women this year. Former list stalwart Li Na retired from tennis in 2014, and Maria Sharapova, who ranked as the top-earning female athlete for 11 straight years, is still dealing with the fallout from a 15-month suspension for using a banned substance. Williams didn’t play a WTA event for 14 months after revealing in January 2017 that she was pregnant. Her prize money over the last year was $62,000, compared with $8 million in the previous 12 months.

The composition of the highest-paid athletes has also shifted, impacting the opportunities for women to qualify. Forbes’ first sports earnings list was in 1990 (we have published lists ranging from 10 to 100 names ever since). Tennis aces Steffi Graf (#13) and Gabriela Sabatini (#21) made the top 30. Four women qualified the next year, with Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati joining Graf and Sabatini.

The makeup of the early lists skewed heavily to individual sports stars, with only 11 team athletes making the grade in 1990 and nine out of 30 in 1991.

History of Women on Forbes' Highest-Paid Athletes List

2018: none

2017: Serena Williams (rank=51)

2016: Williams (40), Maria Sharapova (88)

2015: Sharapova (26), Williams (40)

2014: Sharapova (34), Li Na (41), Williams (45)

2013: Sharapova (22), Williams (55), Li (85)

2012: Sharapova (26), Williams (68), Li (81)

2011: Sharapova (29 out of 50)

2010: Sharapova (25 out of 50)

Fast-forward to 2018, and athletes in team sports make up 82% of the list. Salaries in team sports have exploded over the past 25 years as media companies have spent billions on TV deals for live sports content. The NBA’s top salary in 1990 was $3.75 million for Patrick Ewing. Stephen Curry made $34.7 million this year with the Golden State Warriors.

Thirty-eight MLB players will earn at least $20 million this year, according to Spotrac. Baseball’s top salary in 1990 was $3.2 million (Robin Yount).

Tennis has traditionally been the only path for women to make the Forbes earnings lists, but the bar to make the cut keeps rising, from $16.4 million five years ago to $22.9 million in 2018 (it was $35.5 million this year for the top 30, compared with $3.8 million in 1990).

The revenue doesn’t exist in women’s team sports to support blockbuster salaries. Look at basketball. The WNBA’s TV deal with ESPN is worth $25 million per year on average, while the NBA earns $2.5 billion, or 100 times as much, from its national TV deal (the average salaries in the two leagues are at a similar multiple).

The lack of visibility on TV also means companies are not willing to invest big money in endorsement deals, as they do with LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Brady. Even crossover stars in male-dominated sports like Ronda Rousey and Danica Patrick fell well short of ever qualifying. Conor McGregor is the only MMA fighter to make a Forbes list. And no Nascar drivers qualified this year in the top 100.

Williams should return to our highest-paid list next year, assuming she resumes her spot at the top of the sport and racks up the corresponding prize money. Her $18 million from more than a dozen sponsors, like Nike, Intel, Audemars Piguet, JPMorgan Chase, Lincoln, Gatorade and Beats, compares favorably with the totals from other tennis stars like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal (appearance fees and exhibitions drove their off-court earnings higher this year). Only 16 athletes on the planet made more than Williams over the last 12 months from endorsements.

But who’s next after Williams to make the top 100? There is a huge drop-off after the 23-time Grand Slam champ when it comes to current earnings among female athletes. Sharapova, who turned 31 in April, is unlikely to return to her peak earnings. Patrick has retired from full-time racing. Rousey has moved on to the WWE.

The best bet might be someone who is not on the radar of the general public yet. A breakthrough tennis star from China or Japan, where success can spur massive endorsement deals, as it did with Li and Kei Nishikori, would be a way to crack the 100.